It Takes a Village

We had our first meeting last night with the Architecture professor, and I feel really good about it. It sounds like members of the administration (particularly the PR people) are pretty excited about this project.

Hopefully we'll be getting design contracts soon so he can get started on some drawings, and hopefully we'll have plans to present the city before too long so we can get the approval process started.

The build may take longer than originally expected. It sounds like it will be over the course of two semesters. However, he anticipated it may save us about 1/3 of the costs, which would be pretty awesome. To be clear, that wasn't our intent in forming these partnerships. The intent was to find a group of people willing to think outside of the box, who didn't want to build us a "regular" house with smaller square footage (because that isn't the goal of what we're doing). Plus I like the idea of having so many people involved. I like being connected to the community.

Next on my agenda is setting a meeting to talk to someone about financing. Brent is going to set a meeting to find out who we need to talk to regarding surveys, utility access, etc.

It's going to be a process... it's going to take a village to make this happen... but in the end, it's going to be amazing and worth it.

Tag Team

My epiphany might pay off. My chat with the one of the Senior Professors in the Architecture program was very promising. As in, our build could maybe be part of one of the design studios for next spring (read: reduced labor costs for us!).

We have a meeting next week to sit down with him.

This post is not expressing my enthusiasm properly, and I know that. However, I'm trying not to jinx anything. Yet the idea of having students involved in this makes me crazy excited. It's part of why I love Tiny House Nation so much. The whole idea of raising awareness outside the status quo.

More than that, we want to be a part of our community and the neighborhood we live in. So having a local school be involved in our dream project, is like icing on the cake.

p.s. We've got more bags ready for Goodwill!

Design Epiphany

We were sitting at the Twins game last night, talking tiny house with some family. My almost sister is going to college at the U this fall and moves in next week, so that was swirling around in the back of my mind. And then like a ton of bricks, it hit me!

Why not reach out to the local architecture programs to see if they have any connections or if they have students who would be interested in helping out. So this morning I sent an email to the U of M, Dunwoody and HCTC. In less than 10 minutes, I had a response email from a Senior Professor in the architecture departing saying he wants to help! His email conveyed enthusiasm that rivals ours, which is amazing.

I'm feeling good about this lead. Plus, the city should love that we're involving a local school in this project.

Wish me luck - I'm calling him this afternoon!

Building Tiny

Building tiny isn't like building a normal house in a small space. That wouldn't work. That would feel small. The key to tiny house success (we think) is multi-functional spaces and pieces so that there is less in the tiny space, making it feel larger.

I've spent more time than I care to admit googling tiny house builders in Minnesota. Except there aren't any. So this is our current challenge. Finding a builder who has custom design experience and understands the specific challenges to tiny house living.

I've talked to one contractor. He's excited about it. He thinks tiny homes are on the way to becoming "the next thing." But I don't know if he gets it.

We're supposed to have a sit down meeting with the two of them and the two of us. Make sure they are clear about matters to us, the budget, and find out what sort of ideas they have for our tiny house. I talked to him Tuesday... I'm still waiting for him to get back to me with some meeting options.

My guess is we may have to meet with more than one builder, but we have to start somewhere, and this guy came highly recommended. Of course, I'm not patient, so waiting two days to get dates/times to even set a meeting seems crazy. I'll give it to Monday. Then it's time to call the next guy.

We're willing to take the time that's needed to do this right, but now doesn't seem like one of those stages I should be "waiting" at.

If only we were in Portland or Vancouver, where tiny houses are already much more popular, and builders with real life tiny house experience exist. If you know of someone in the vicinity of Minneapolis who could help us, please! Let us know.

Dream Lot

Looking for lots is not easy. It's not like searching for a house. For some reason, it's more difficult. We would find one that sounded good and do a drive by. Too small. Weird shaped. Bad neighborhood. Trashy neighbors.

Hours were spent on the couch with Brent looking up lots and me searching the lots on google maps. You'd think there was a better way. One day he changed the price range a little just to see what happened...

and the most wonderful lot appeared. Wooded. Great neighborhood.

We talked to friends about it and they were shocked it was the price it was for the area it was in. It seemed too good to be true.

We fell in love. We drove past it. Then we walked past it. We loved it.

Until we didn't, which didn't take long.

Because we realized the whole point of building a tiny house was so that we could have less, do more. Pay off the mortgage faster. Lower monthly payment. And while this lot was a steal at $150,000. It was at least $50,000 more than we planned to spend on the lot and house together (on the high side!).

So we moved on and went back to searching city owned lots (which come with their own challenges that I will get into another day). Now we found one (again) that we like. Good size, end of a cal-de-sac, great location. There are some sacrifices, but we'll get to that later.

The point is... we have to keep reminding ourselves of the big picture when building tiny. The financial freedom that will come with it (sooner than later) is among the top so a $150,000 lot, no matter how perfect the neighborhood, is not, in fact, perfect.

Between Then and Now

We were friends in college. We partied together, passed notes in class. But that isn’t where this story starts. Fast forward to February 2012, Brent and I reconnected. The previous year I had moved from a 4-bedroom house in the suburbs to a 1-bedroom apartment in Uptown. I was loving everything about being back in the city, walking everywhere, not getting on a highway to go to work. My tiny 510 square foot apartment became a gathering place, which is the opposite of what I expected. I thought my days of entertaining were over!

At that time, Brent was living in a 3-bedroom house in the suburbs on almost a ½ acre lot with two roommates. He moved out there for his job at the time, but had since moved on and was mostly working in the Twin Cities. He hated the time he had to dedicate to mowing the lawn. He told me how he wanted to sell the house once the economy started to improve.

That spring I lost my job. The company I was working for went out of business. Luckily the next month my lease was ending. He told me I could move into his house (knowing I would be cleaner than his roommates) until he sold the house. Almost a full year later, he put the house on the market and four days later he had three offers.

To say we weren’t prepared is an understatement. We didn’t know where we were going to move, other than back to the city. There were four points we were unwilling to budge on: in Minneapolis (downtown or certain areas of Uptown), dog friendly (because Napa wasn’t going anywhere), washer and dryer in unit and garage parking (off-street at an absolutely minimum). This was surprisingly hard to find without spending more than $2,000/month. Finally we found a place in Loring Park. The catch: we couldn’t move until four weeks after the close date.

We contemplated options. We could stay with friends or family, but that felt like a long time to not have our own space. So we did the unthinkable. We went on Priceline and entered a price and the area near my work, and we moved into a hotel room for three weeks. I kid you not. This was our life.

Yes, we had our stuff stored in my mom’s garage and my dad’s big trailer, but there we were. Two adults and a dog living at La Quinta Inn. The one and only positive in this, is by the time we moved into our 1-bedroom apartment, 707 square feet felt palatial.  

We’ve been here over a year now. We love city life. We love not having a yard, having a small space to clean and maintain - so many perks. We learned we don’t love property management companies or neighbors, which is when our plans to buy a condo were blown out of the water.

So we landed on an even better idea. Find a lot in the city. Design and build a tiny house that suits our needs. Make it green. We’ll be able to pay it off, be debt free, and have the time and money to travel and go on all the adventures we’ve been dreaming about.

That brings us to now. We found the lot (we haven’t bought it yet). We’re investigating contractors. We’re ready to take the next step in our tiny house dreams! Join us on this crazy adventure!